Age of the Dragon 1: Return of the Riders

Chapter 19

It was still night when Fallyn woke with a feeling like electricity running through her veins and an inexplicable understanding that today was the moment of change. She slipped out of her room, the nervous energy driving her to seek out Arya, only to run into a runner.

"My lady! Ajihad summons you!" he said rapidly. "There is trouble!"

"Of course there is," she thought, immediately changing her trajectory to find Ajihad.

Once in the study, she slipped in to see a grim expression on Ajihad's face. Soon after, Arya arrived, followed by Ajihad's second in command - Jörmundur. A few moments later, Eragon and Orik arrived. Ajihad briefly introduced Eragon to Jörmundur, then set straight to business.

"I roused the six of you because we are all in grave danger," he said seriously. "About half an hour ago a dwarf ran out of an abandoned tunnel under Tronjheim. He was bleeding and nearly incoherent, but he had enough sense left to tell the dwarves what was pursuing him: an army of Urgals, maybe a day's march from here."

Jörmundur swore explosively, as he and Orik immediately began plying Ajihad with questions.

"I suppose we have found the origin of that itch," Arya communicated wryly. "You always did have a strange knack for trouble."

"So it would seem," Fallyn responded.

"Quiet!" Ajihad ordered, silencing the room once more. "There is more. The Urgals aren't approaching over land but under it. They're in the tunnels... we're to be attacked from below."

Once more, an uproar kicked up, with Eragon questioning why it took so long for them to learn about this attack - only to be immediately shut down when Orik pointed out they were lucky to know at this point at all.

"Do we know where they are coming from, beyond being in the tunnels?" Fallyn cut in calmly.

Ajihad pointed to a map on his table, his finger touching the point where the Beor Mountains and Surda's eastern border met.

"This," he said calmly, "is where the dwarf claimed to have come from."

"Orthíad!" Orik exclaimed.

Jörmundur displayed confusion, which Orik explained the city's significance - and why it was abandoned. Ajihad concluded that because of how old the city was, and how long it had been left abandoned, it was likely that some tunnels had collapsed, providing the Urgals with a route in. Then came the planning, the actual process of preparing.

"You did well, bringing them back to the task," Arya commented.

"If I had said nothing, they would have bickered about whose fault this was until the Urgals were already slaughtering their way through the city," Fallyn grumbled.

"Do you know how many Urgals there are?" Jörmundur bent over the map, eyeing it critically. "Are Galbatorix's troops with them? We can't plan a defence without knowing how large their army is."

"We're unsure about both of those things, yet our survival rests on that last question," Ajihad responded unhappily. "If Galbatorix has augmented the Urgals' ranks with his own men, we don't stand a chance. But-"

"Before that," Fallyn frowned deeply. "How does he keep them from killing each other? That would be hard enough without adding his own men to the mix."

"She's right," Orik tugged at his beard thoughtfully. "Working off the assumption that there are only Urgals to contend with, what would we do?"

"Well, working from that assumption, it would be possible that we could win," Ajihad said. "It's too late to call for aid from Orrin or the elves, but I've sent runners anyway. If we should fall, at the very least they won't be caught unawares."